1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a personal authentication apparatus for authenticating a person who intends to unlock a locking apparatus installed on a door and to a locking apparatus that conducts an unlocking operation based on personal authentication.
2. Description of Related Art
Examples of a personal authentication apparatus and locking apparatus are disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication Nos. 2001-241237 and 2002-70382. Before allowing a person to handle an object or unlock a door, the disclosures ask the person to enter his or her biometric information such as a fingerprint, compare the entered fingerprint with registered fingerprints, and if the person is authenticated, permit the handling of the object or the unlocking of the door.
When registering a fingerprint in the apparatuses, a person is asked to register an ID number in addition to the fingerprint. For authentication, the person enters the fingerprint as well as the ID number, so that the apparatuses may retrieve the registered fingerprint based on the entered ID number and compare the retrieved fingerprint with the entered fingerprint.
These related arts are incapable of specifying the location of a data corruption occurring in registered ID numbers or fingerprints. Once data corrupts, the related arts must reconstruct all of the registered ID numbers and fingerprints. This needs a lot of time and labor.